What does a Northern Ireland charity have to submit each year?

England and Wales: not applicable — this step is Northern Ireland-only; see Step 7, Complete the annual return. Scotland: not applicable — see Step 8, Complete the OSCR annual return. Northern Ireland: partly covered — the deadline, what must be submitted, and the position on the registration-litigation filing gap are established; the question set on the monitoring return itself, and whether a registration threshold is now in force, are not.

When is the CCNI annual monitoring return due?

The CCNI annual monitoring return is due 10 months from the end of the financial year. The rule is in s.68(3) of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. This page assumes the charity is registered with CCNI; if not, see apply to register in Northern Ireland. It also assumes you have gathered your annual return data.

The duty begins with your first full financial year after registration. CCNI states this explicitly. This matters for the trustees of a newly registered charity. A part-period between registering and your first year end is not itself caught. A charity registered in October with a March year end does not owe a return for those five months.

How the first period works in each regime is set out in when the first annual return is due.

The annual monitoring return is Northern Ireland’s equivalent of the annual return. It is the yearly return a charity submits to CCNI, together with its accounts and trustees’ annual report.

Do charities caught by the registration litigation have to file past returns?

No. The Department for Communities has stated that there is no legal requirement for those charities to file for the past periods.

A large group of Northern Irish charities was registered under decisions later found to be legally defective. These charities did not file during the years the position was unresolved.

On the register today, the missing filings look like years of default. It is not. The Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 validated the earlier registration decisions prospectively for reporting purposes. It did not reach backwards and create a filing duty that had not existed.

The gap traces to a defect in the regulator’s own processes, not to trustee misconduct. Say a funder or a new trustee has raised your filing history. That is the answer. It comes from the Department, not from us.

The Northern Ireland registration threshold: not yet settled

Whether a registration threshold is in force in Northern Ireland is not yet settled. Northern Ireland has been in the process of bringing in a registration threshold for some time. The Minister for Communities approved one in the summer of 2025. CCNI published preparatory material in February 2026.

A figure circulates in the sector. We are not going to repeat it as though it were in force. No primary source confirms either the figure or a start date at the time of writing.

Say you are near whatever the margin turns out to be. Ask CCNI directly rather than acting on a number you found in a blog post.

How many Northern Ireland charities file on time?

Most do. CCNI publishes compliance data. Its data is the most recent of any UK charity regulator. For the year to 31 March 2025, of 6,819 returns due, 4,739 arrived on time — 69.50%. 816 were late and 1,264 were still outstanding when the report was written.

CCNI also:

• reviewed a sample of 153 sets of accounts
• issued guidance to 45 charities
• required 10 higher-risk cases to resubmit

So filing on time puts you in the majority. And the regulator does read what arrives.

Where this page stops

This page stops at two points: the questions on the form and the registration threshold. In both cases, the honest answer is that we do not know yet.

We have not established the CCNI question set. We are not going to rebuild one from guesswork. CCNI publishes a “How to complete the Annual Monitoring Return — 10 Minute Guide”. It is free, short and written by the people who built the form. Start there.

On the registration threshold, the status is unresolved at the time of writing. The figure circulating in the sector could not be confirmed against a primary source. CCNI answers enquiries directly. On whether you must register at all, that call is worth making. It is better than relying on any third party, including this guide.

With the return submitted, the report that goes with it is covered from what the trustees’ annual report has to include onwards.

Common mistake: treating charities that did not file during the registration litigation as non-compliant

Absence of filings looks like default. The Department for Communities states there is no legal requirement for those charities to file for past periods. The gap traces to the regulator’s own governance defect, not trustee misconduct.